Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Biltong and Pinotage Festival at L'Avenir

This was the first time this festival had been held
and, because it was such a huge success, selling out the 600 tickets allocated
and in fact more than 200 more, they will definitely be repeating it. The good
news for you up country is that they are going to take it to Johannesburg soon.
All the Biltong was provided by Joubert and Monte and on payment of your entry
fee of R150 you received a good wine glass (to keep), a book of 12 vouchers for
small tasting portions of the different flavours of biltong and a small bamboo
container in which to put the biltong. There was a good selection of excellent
pinotages to taste, although we missed some of our favourites. You could buy a
cheese and paté box from L’Avenir or Joubert & Monty had braais going and
you could have a boerewors roll for R30, a chicken prego roll for R40 or the
full tutti: a Rump steak platter for R70. We had a ball

Queuing for
tickets

Biltong for
sale at the Joubert & Monty stand

Pairing biltong
with Pinotage, perhaps for the first time

The stands
were busy but not too crowded

Most farms
brought their pinotages, some also brought pinotage blends

One thing that
needs a bit of a boost is more seating, some were happy to sit on the lawn, but
only if there was shade

A view from
across the dam

Remhoogte from
across the road shared a stand with Lanzerac

The area
outside the tasting room was very popular

If you could
find a table, the restaurant area was popular. But some people did reserve
tables while they were tasting, we didn’t think this was very fair. Circulate
and come back later, give others a chance

Tables were
dotted all over the lawns

Recent immigrants from the Eastern Cape, Tracy and Graham Cherrington having fun

On L’Avenir’s
own stand, there was a steady stream of people wanting to taste their excellent
pinotages

Good live
music all day

You didn’t
have to wait too long for a taste

Danie and Karen
Steytler of Kaapzicht with Danie the 3rd on their table

L’Avenir’s
first winemaker Francois Naude giving a taste of Rhebokskloof to his son Francois

Some happy
lads from Sea Point with girls from Stellenbosch having fun

and an entire
family was out for the day. Dad was getting refills for them

A series of
guided tastings took place in the tasting room with Barend Barnard, Marketing
Manager of L’Avenir

The girl on
the round table was serving biltong in exchange for vouchers

Wine enthusiasts Goolam and Denise Essop

We arrived
home to a 2½ hour power cut, otherwise known as Load Shedding. So we had some miso soup
and some sushi from our favourite Chinese restaurant, Dynasty, by lamp and
candle light

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MENU,our weekly email newsletter, started as an advertising medium for Main Ingredient, our specialist retail grocery business. We opened our Sea Point shop in December 2002 because the limited range of food products available in the supermarkets frustrated us. We realised that there was a place in South Africa for a grocer catering to people who share our tastes and needs. We moved the shop on line in 2010, but have now discontinued it, having decided that it is time to “retire” and concentrate on our writing, photography and tour guiding. MENU has a wide circulation and is read nationally and internationally.

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